River coach says burden lifted from their shoulders

OSAKA, Dec 16 (Reuters) - River Plate coach Marcelo Gallardo said they had lifted a huge burden from their shoulders by beating Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Wednesday to reach the Club World Cup final and secure a potential dream meeting with Barcelona.

The Argentines and South American champions have been tantalisingly close to a showdown with Europe's top side Barcelona since winning the Libertadores Cup in August.

Yet they always knew that they would first have to negotiate a semi-final against supposedly lesser opponents.

With 15,000 River Plate supporters having made the 18,000 kilometre journey from Argentina in the hope of seeing their side get a pop at Lionel Messi's team, coach Gallardo knew he could not afford to let them down.

"We just had to get to the final, there was no other way," he said after his side's scrappy, nerve-ridden 1-0 win over a team who qualified as champions of the host nation.

"All these people came with this dream and we had to carry this responsibility, and this put us under enormous pressure. It is a liberation to get to the final that we wanted and now we can enjoy the moment."

The European and South American champions enter the fray in the semi-finals of the competition when they are seeded not to meet each other.

No European team has failed to reach the final since the tournament began in its current form since 2005.

But South American teams have always found the semi-final to be a slog and two have lost their last four encounters -- Internacional in 2010 and their fellow Brazilians Atletico Mineiro in 2013.

"We just had to be intelligent, not lose our calm and not get desperate," said Gallardo.

"This sort of responsibility doesn't allow you to be uninhibited, especially against a very well organised team who hadn't lost for a long time. It was a very, very dangerous game for us."

"This is a moment of satisfaction to have reached the final," added Gallardo, who has won both the Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, the region's equivalent of Europe's second tier Europa League, in only 18 months in charge.

Barcelona still have to play their semi-final against Asian champions Guangzhou Evergrande on Thursday.

Coaches usually shy away from saying which team they would prefer to face in the final, often offering a standard reply about all opponents being difficult, but Gallardo had no such doubts.

"We all hope that Barcelona will win," he said. (Reporting by Brian Homewood; editing by Toby Davis)